The Modern Benoni is a perennial favorite among players looking to create winning chances with Black. It is one of the few openings where White has no easy way to force drawish simplifications or deny Black any dynamic counterplay. Both players need to understand the imbalances in the position and pursue their plans with great vigor. In this book Franco shows how Black can seek to create the kind of mayhem that has attracted champions such as Tal, Kasparov and Topalov to the Benoni, and also demonstrates how White can seek either to put a positional clamp on the game, or else to storm Black's position before his development is complete. A special section deals with the vital question of move-orders.
This book contains something that I've never encountered before in a chess book. Franco references another book in a way that makes this book largely useless if you do not also have that other book available. Specifically, Ch.2 p23 Game-5, last paragraph on the page, Another important idea is the provocative 9...Nh5, preventing Bf4 by White, profusely analysed in Watson''s book The Gambit Guide to the Modern Benoni. And on the next page (note to 11...Re8), It is still possible to enter the line recommended by Watson, by playing 11...Nh5. Buy Watson's book instead, or at least first.
Only a few chess players work at chess to the best of their abilities.
Boris Gelfand
Puzzle Answer
1.Rd7! Bxd7 2.Qxd7 Qb6+ 3.Kh1 Re8 4.Rxe7! Rxe7 5.Bd6 Qxd6 6.Qxd6+- Gelfand-Salov, Madrid 1996 (Source: Anthology of Chess Combinations)
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